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The College News
Volume IV. No. 3
BRYN MAWR, PA., OCTOBER 17, 1917
Price 5 Cent*
MAY DAY GIVEN UP FOR MORE DIRECT WAR WORK.
DEAN TAFT SPEAKS A6AINST MAY DAY
"Personally, I do not feel like giYing
May Day", Dean Taft said in Chapel
last Thursday. Not only would the
energies of the college be going into
unproductive labor, Miss Taft pointed
out, but into unnecessary labor, for "a
nation at war must learn to give its
money without expecting to be enter-
tained".
SOMETHING WRONG SOMEWHERE
"A pacifist has something physically
wrong", said Mr. Walcott, in answer to a
question from one of the audience after
his lecture last Saturday. "Either the
brain or the spinal column is lacking".
COLLEGE REFUSES TO ABANDON
MUSIC BECAUSE OF WAR YEAR
Admission to be Charged at Door
Music will be brought to the college as
usual this year through a series of con-
certs, the expenses of which are to be do-
frayed, as last year, by charging admis-
sion at the door.
It was the wish of the Music Committee
of the Undergraduate Association, ex-
pressed at a recent Undergraduate meet-
ing, that this method of meeting expenses
should be abandoned in favor of the
pledge system, used successfully in 1915-
'16. Concerts given last year, R. Hart
'18, Chairman of the Music Committee,
pointed out, often barely^eteared ex-
penses. The Association,' however, was
unwilling that the college should be can-
vassed for pledges and evidently pre-
ferred to risk signing contracts in ad-
vance of receipts. Many students voted
against both methods, wishing to defeat
them on war grounds.
Kitty Cheatham will probably give a
Christmas concert here in December and
Reinhold Warlich, who sang here lesl
year, is expected sometime in November.
"WRITING THE ORALS�
HA! HA! HA!"
Seniors Sing And Cheer Before One
Hour Test. Committee of Three
Still Busy Correcting Papers
Ten minutes of untrammeled oral sing-
ing greeted the Senior French examiners
last Saturday morning in Taylor before
the examination. Sixty-one Seniors took
the examination, which lasted an hour.
To the tune of "Brighten the Corner
Where You Are", the revival hymn made
famous by "Billy" Sunday, 1918 set the
first "written oral" song, "Writing the
Orals, Ha, Ha, Ha"! which they gave for
the first time Friday night in Pembroke
at the oral singing.
The same committee of three. Dean
Maddison, Miss Donnelly, and Monsieur
Beck, which made out the French exami-
nation, is correcting the books. On ac-
count of the time it will take for all three
to go over each book, the Seniors will not
hear from their French before they take
BELGIUM, POLAND AND
ROUMANIA MUST BE FED
IF WE ARE TO DEFEAT
GERMANY SAYS EXPERT
Starvation Tactics of Prussianism in
Belgium Traced by Mr. Walcott
in Speech on U. S. Food
Administration
"Meat, wheat, and sweet are what our
Allies must have to fight down the Prus-
sian system", snid Mr. Frederic Walcott,
investigator of Belgium, Serbia, and Po-
land for the Rockefeller Institute, who
spoke on the Prussian system and food
administration at the War Relief week
end last Saturday in Taylor. "The U-
boats began to starve Belgium in August
and she is starving still. Tuberculosis is
running over the country like a prairie
Are. Poland Is starved. Roumania Is
starved, and unless she is fed there is
grave danger that she will make a sepa-
rate peace, letting the Germans into
Odessa, the Black Sea and the wheat
fields of Russia.
"We expect Belgium to starve", said
General von Bisslng, late Governor Gen-
eral of Belgium, in reply to Mr. Walcott's
inquiry. "Then we can force the Bel-
gians into Germany to release fighting
men. Some we will send to Mesopotamia,
the weak and young we will push in front
of a firing squad into the enemy's hands
for France and Britain to care for. At
the end of the war Belgium will be a
German province and Antwerp ours".
"This was a sincere statement from
General von Blssing", said Mr. Walcott.
"Denationalization is only an Incident if
it helps Germany.
"The grave-yard of a nation", Mr.
Walcott called the old Napoleonic road
by which he travelled into Poland. The
Germans had asked him to Investigate
Poland, fearing that the starvation there
would demoralize the German troops.
Along this road had passed the Polish
refugees, fleeing after the retreating
Russians in 1915. "I could not count the
wicker baby baskets such as hang in the
peasants' cottages, there were so many
lying beside the road", said Mr. Walcott.
"Typhus was in every single camp I
visited", he said. "The refugees were
crowded by tens of thousands into bar-
racks that were hardly weather proof in
the bitter climate. They were emaciated.
Indescribably filthy, and had the hunger
stare by which we have learned to know
the starving."
"By starvation", said Mr. Walcott, "the
Germans hope to accomplish what they
have tried for years to do in Poland.
There they can run the gamut of cruelty.
Belgium is too near Holland and the
West for such treatment."
"What Is good for Germany is good for
the world", say the Prussians, according
to Mr. Walcott. The fates of Belgium,
Poland, Roumania, and Serbia are exam-
ples of what is good for Germany.
Latest Bulletin on War Relief
Over fifteen hundred dollars in
cash, checks, and pledges was col-
lected for War Relief after Mr. Wal-
cott's lecture last Saturday night.
Denbigh leads the other halls with a
total of almost $500.
A reconstruction unit In France, to
be supported by the alumnae and un-
dergraduates, has been suggested In-
stead of Y. M. C. A. huts or a Russian
ambulance as an object for the fund.
In any case a certain percentage of
the money goes to the Main Line
Chapter of the Red Cross, the greater
part being kept for this main war
charity not yet decided upon.
Miss Anne Morgan of New York ItM
offered to come and speak on the le-
constructlon work of the American
Fund for French Wounded some tin f
late in November. �
EXPELLED PROFESSOR SCORES
COLUMBIA; THREATENS TO SUE
Sympathy With Dr. Cattell Causes
Resignation of Charles.
H. Beard
The Faculty and students of Columbia
University have been in an uproar -for
the past two weeks as a result of the ex-
pulsion of Professor J. McKeen Cattell
from the Chair of Psychology on the
charge of "disseminating disloyal doc-
trines on the war". Charles A. Beard,
Professor of Political Science at the Uni-
versity and author of American Govern-
ment and Politics used in the politics
course at Bryn Mawi. has resigned from
the staff because of his disapproval of
what he believes to be the repression of
free speech among the Faculty.
Professor Cattell, in a letter slurring
President Butler and the trustees, wrote
in part: "Whatever iqay be the opinion
held of me In this period of prejudice and
unreason, from which I trust we shall
soon emerge, my services to �he univer-
sity are a matter on record ... I
made the department of psychology the
strongest in the world and as head of the
departments of philosophy and anthro-
pology made them the strongest in
America ... It would not only be
common decency, but also common sense,
for the trustees to pay the pension due to
me . . . Otherwise, there will even-
tually be unrest among the members of
the Faculty; a lawsuit will bring out
facts concerning the president, the trus-
tees, and the university which will not
be of service to them".
The need is felt at Columbia of bring-
ing about a closer co-operation between
Faculty and trustees and so removing the
objection that the latter are checking free
discussion at the university.
PUBLIC OPINION PUTS IAN ON FLOWERS
College War Relief in "Quarterly"
A statement of the plane of the under-
graduate War Relief Committee for the
year. Including extracts from letters writ-
ten by Mrs. Dike, chairman of the recon-
struction work of the American Fund for
French Wounded, will appear In the next
Alumna Quarterly.
Mr. Walcott, who is on the Food Ad-
ministration Board, and lives with Mr.
Hoover In Washington, took the audience
Into his confidence, telling them of the
official outlook on the war. He requested
that his confidential information be not
printed.
Susan F. Nichols '15 has been ap-
pointed English Reader for the first sem-
ester and Is living with Dean Taft at
Penygroes.
The sending of flowers this year for
"orals" or plays has been discouraged at
Bryn Mawr both at the Christian Asso-
ciation meeting last Friday and at differ-
ent class meetings. No votes have been
taken, however, as public opinion Is
counted on to regulate the matter.
R. Catling '19 has been chosen 1�Jsc
of the Glee Club for 1917'IS. The busi-
ness manager Is D. Chambers '19: the
assistant business manager. L. Kellogg.
NO MAY DAY THIS YEAR
EVEN FOR WAR RELIEF, IS H
VOTE OF UNDERGRADUATES
Miss Nearing Gives Reasons For Not
Having Traditional Bryn Mawr Fete
* Under Present War Conditions
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Excitement reached a fever pitch last
Thursday night when the fate of May
Day hung In the balance while the tellers
counted a secret ballot cast by the Under-
graduate Association on the motion that
the festival be given this year for war
relief. The announcement that the
project had been voted down 251 to 56�
a defeat of almost five to one�came as a
complete surprise, since during the meet-
ing, which lasted nearly two hours, both
sides were warmly upheld. Early in the
in..ling Miss Nearing '09, a former Pres-
ident of Undergraduate Association, was
introduced to speak from the point of
view of "one who had experienced several
May Days", and gave her arguments
against having the fete under present
conditions. V. Kneeland '18, President,
asked that "patriotism" be left out of the
discussion, since patriotic service was the
common end of the whole Association*,
the difference of opinion being merely as
to the best means toward that end.
May Day Incompatible with Gritted
Teeth
"Do we want to give May Day at all,
and if so, do we want to give It under the
present conditions"? was Miss Neariag's
formulation of the Issue. She said In
part:
"Many people believe that May Day
should be given up entirely, that Phila-
delphia people, who make up most of the
audience, are tired of It. It Is true that
when Bryn Mawr began having May Day
It was a unique sort of performance,
whereas now something on the same or-
der may be seen at almost any college in
the country. Still, I believe May Day Is
one of the big things In college and that
no matter how much people hate It be-
fore, while they are working for It, every-
one loves It on the day. It has a peculiar
flavor and a thrill all its own.
"Granting, then, that May Day Is fine
in itself, ought It to be given under the
present conditions? The, first reason
against it has been called a sentimental
one. May Day will come Just at the be-
ginning of the big spring drives, when
every mall and cable will bring lists of
killed and wounded. Those of you who
have read books describing the first
months of the war in England can im-
agine what the reaction will be. I can't
remember whether you are old enough
to remember when the Titanic went
down . . . , but if you do, you know
that the reaction after such a tragedy is
horrible. I can't Imagine a May Day
given by people with gritted teeth. Even
If It were given, the audience might be
cut down one-third. . . .
"Another reason which may or may not
have weight with you is that practically
all of the Faculty and Staff are against
it . . .
"The cost of the last May Day was
f600�. This year it will probably be
S10.000.
"It seems too bad to put so much effort
on something that Is non-productive. I
must have spent about ninety hours In
rehearsal for May Day my Freshman
year, although I had only a small part-
that of the lion In Pyramue and Thisbe.
Innumerable hours, too. most be spent
making costumes, with nothing to show
(Continued on page 5, column �
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